The invention relates to devices for approximation, ligation and fixation of tissue using a suture, to various constituent parts comprising said devices, and particularly to the placement of sutures into certain difficult to access ligamental structures, to the approximation of tissue separated by means of an endosurgical trocar being inserted into a body cavity, and to approximation, ligation, and fixation of body tissue using both traditional open surgical and endosurgical techniques and instruments.
Suturing of body tissues is a time consuming aspect of most surgical procedures. Many surgical procedures are currently being performed where it is necessary to make a large opening to expose the area of, for instance, the human body that requires surgical repair. There are instruments that are becoming increasingly available that allow the viewing of certain areas of the body through a small puncture wound without exposing the entire body cavity. These viewing instruments, called endoscopes, can be used in conjunction with specialized surgical instrumentation to detect, diagnose, and repair areas of the body that were previously only able to be repaired using traditional xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d surgery.
In the past, there have been many attempts to simplify the surgeons"" task of driving a needle carrying suture through body tissues to approximate, ligate and fixate them. Many prior disclosures, such as described in Drake et al, U.S. Pat. No. 919,138 issued Apr. 20, 1909, employ a hollow needle driven through the tissue with the suture material passing through the hollow center lumen. The needle is withdrawn leaving the suture material in place, and the suture is tied, completing the approximation. A limitation of these types of devices is that they are particularly adapted for use in open surgical procedures where there is room for the surgeon to manipulate the instrument.
Others have attempted to devise suturing instruments that resemble traditional forceps, such as Bassett, U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,740 issued Mar. 30, 1976. These devices pinch tissue between opposing jaws and pass a needle from one jaw through the tissue to the other jaw, where grasping means pull the needle and suture material through the tissue. A limitation of these designs is that they also are adapted primarily for open surgery, in that they require exposure of the tissues to be sutured in order that the tissue may be grasped or pinched between the jaws of the instrument. This is a severe limitation in the case of endoscopic surgery.
The term xe2x80x9cendosurgeryxe2x80x9d means endoscopic surgery or surgery performed using an endoscope. In conjunction with a video monitor, the endoscope becomes the surgeons"" new eyes from which they operate. Operations using an endoscope are significantly less invasive when compared to traditional open surgery. Patients usually return home the next day or in some cases the same day of the endosurgical procedure. This is in contrast to standard open surgical procedures where a large incision divides the muscle layers and allows the surgeon to directly visualize the operative area. Patients may stay in the hospital for 5 to 6 days or longer following open surgery. In addition, after endosurgical procedures, patients return to work within a few days versus the traditional 3 to 4 weeks at home following open surgery.
Access to the operative site using endosurgical or minimally invasive techniques is accomplished by inserting small tubes called trocars into a body cavity. These tubes have a diameter of, for example, between 3 mm and 30 mm and a length of about 150 mm (6 inches). There have been attempts to devise instruments and methods for suturing within a body cavity through these trocar tubes. Such an instrument is disclosed by Mulhollan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,640 issued Nov. 10, 1986. Mulhollan describes an instrument that may be used to hold and drive a needle, but makes no provision for retrieval of the needle from the body cavity, nor the completion of the suture by tying. Mulhollan""s instrument is limited in that the arc through which the needle must be driven is perpendicular to the axis of the device. Another such instrument intended for endoscopic use is described by Yoon, U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,027, issued Jun. 19, 1990. This instrument uses oppositional hollow needles or tracks pushed through the tissue and coapted to create a tract through which the suture material is pushed. It is not clear how these curved tracks would be adapted to both be able to pierce the tissue planes illustrated, parallel to the tips of the tracks, and be curved toward each other to form the hollow tract.
The invention herein described may be used for final closure of umbilical and secondary trocar puncture wounds in abdominal tissues including the fascia and other layers. The umbilical puncture is routinely a puncture site of 10 mm to 12 mm. Future procedures may require trocar puncture sites up to 18 mm and greater in size. Due to the large size of the puncture wound, it is important that the site be closed or approximated at the interior abdominal wall following removal of the large trocar cannula. An improper or non-existent closure can lead to a herniation of the bowel and/or bowel obstruction. The present mode for closure is to reach down to the desired tissue layer with a pair of needle drivers holding a needle and suture material and secure a stitch. Many patients are obese and present considerable fat in this region. Because the abdominal wall may be several inches thick, it is extremely difficult, tedious and time consuming to approximate the fascial tissues with a suture. Often times, following removal of a large trocar, the puncture site needs to be enlarged to accomplish this, thus negating some of the advantages of endoscopic surgery previously discussed.
One of the embodiments described herein may be of particular advantage in performing a surgery for correction of female stress incontinence, which affects over 5 million women in the United States. Stress incontinence is caused when the structures defining the pelvic floor are altered by aging or disturbed by the process of childbirth or other trauma. These structures in the pelvic floor normally hold the urinary bladder such that maintenance of a volume of urine in the bladder is accomplished by a combination of muscle tone and bladder positioning.
There are a number of surgical procedures that may be performed in order to restore the normal anatomical position of the urinary bladder. The classic open Burch suspension procedure is one such procedure and is a straightforward surgical treatment for correction of female stress incontinence. During this procedure, sutures are precisely placed in the wall of the vagina on each side of the urethra, with care being taken to avoid puncturing either the urethra or the mucosal layer of the vagina. These sutures are then looped through a ligament, called Cooper""s ligament, which runs along the posterior ridge of the pubic bone. These sutures are then pulled taut, and carefully tied to suspend the urinary bladder in a more anatomically sound position, restoring normal urinary function and continence.
One of the problems with the procedure described above is that it is normally done only in conjunction with other scheduled abdominal surgical procedures such as a hysterectomy. This is because, as described earlier, an open surgical approach requiring a large abdominal incision must be used, and it is not very common for a patient to elect to have a major abdominal surgical procedure just for the treatment of incontinence.
Consequently, of late, new approaches to the performance of the classical open Burch procedure have been attempted. One approach is a procedure known as a laparoscopic Burch suspension procedure, and has begun to find favor among physicians. Another approach that has shown great promise is a transvaginal approach for the placement of the sutures.
The laparoscopic approach to the Burch procedure has all of the advantages of laparoscopy described earlier with respect to post operative pain, hospital stay and recovery time. There are three difficulties associated with the laparoscopic approach; access, suture placement, and knot tying. The present invention addresses the problems surrounding the placement of the sutures in the appropriate structures and in the optimal position, and also addresses particular aspects of needle retrieval and knot tying when using endoscopic techniques.
Currently, the placement of sutures while using endoscopic techniques involves placing a semi-circular needle, attached to and carrying a suture, in a pair of endoscopic needle holders. These needle holders, which resemble a pair of pliers with an elongated shaft between the handles and the jaws, must be placed down through one of the surgical trocars into the body cavity containing the structure to be sutured. Because of their size, the needles used in these procedures are generally not able to be held in the jaws of the needle driver while being introduced through the operative trocar. The surgeon must hold the suture string in the needle holder jaws, and push the needle holder trailing the needle and suture into the body cavity. The suture and needle combination is dropped in the body cavity, and the needle is then located and picked up and properly positioned in the needle holder jaws. This is a difficult and time-consuming aspect of the current endoscopic technique for suturing. The needle carrying the suture may then be driven by pronation of the wrist, causing rotation of the elongate shaft, and subsequent arcuate rotation of the semi-circular needle.
It may be seen that a limitation of this type of needle driver is that the needle may only be driven or rotated in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation, such axis being described by the elongate shaft and the position of the surgical trocar. Thus the current endoscopic needle drivers will not allow the surgeon to swing the needle in an arc parallel to the trocar""s axis. This is a severe limitation in the case of the laparoscopic Burch, because of the orientation of the anatomy relative to the planes of access. The vaginal wall and the Cooper""s ligament require the sutures to be placed in a orientation that makes the procedure extremely difficult and time consuming with the use of currently available instrumentation. It is also a limitation when attempting to ligate vessels, ligaments and other structures that run perpendicular to the axis of the operative trocar.
Another limitation of the current instrumentation is seen in the aspect that requires the surgeon to prepare the needle for penetration of the tissue while the needle is inside the body. This process is a time consuming, and sometimes frustrating exercise in hand to eye coordination, which is complicated by the fact that the surgeon is viewing the three dimensional space inside the body cavity through a two dimensional video monitor.
It may also be seen that the surgeon must be able to retrieve the needle trailing the suture material back through the same surgical trocar through which the needle driver is placed. This allows a knot to be tied in the suture outside of the body, and pushed down the trocar to the structure being sutured. Thus the needle driver must be able to retrieve the needle and bring the needle trailing the suture back up through the same trocar through which it is introduced allowing the tied knot to be pushed back down into the operative site.
It may also be seen that if the surgeon desires to place more than one suture throw through the tissue, he must be able to reload the needle into the needle driver. This may be done extracorporeally, that is, outside the body, in a manner similar to the initial loading of the suture device, or it may be done intracorporeally, that is, inside the body. Features which facilitate the intracorporeal loading of the needle can be seen to provide the surgeon with another option in the application of suture material to tissues, and could save operative time.
While laparoscopy has certainly found favor with many physicians as an alternative operative modality, the advanced skill set and operative time necessary to become an efficient and practiced laparoscopist have proven to be a challenge for a large portion of the surgical community. The cost pressures brought about by large scale patient management (the continued rise and success of health maintenance organizations or HMO""s) have also made the surgical community to cast a critical eye on the overall costs and long-term outcomes of some of the procedures that have been tried via a laparoscopic approach. While the laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) has certainly proven its worth in the past 8-10 years, many other procedures have not shown similar cost effectiveness and positive long-term outcomes.
Hence, alternatives have been sought to bridge the gap between skill and equipment intensive laparoscopic surgery and more familiar open surgery. As such, under the broad umbrella of xe2x80x9cminimally invasive surgeryxe2x80x9d which would include laparoscopic surgery, a relatively new approach called xe2x80x9cmini-incision surgeryxe2x80x9d has begun to emerge. This approach uses the principles of traditional open surgery, along with some of the equipment advances of laparoscopy to provide the patient with the best of both worlds.
Perhaps the most visible of these new approaches is the emergence of minimally invasive heart surgery, both for coronary bypass and for valve replacement. Techniques and tools for cardiovascular surgery have begun to be used that allow the heart surgeon to perform procedures through small incisions between the ribs that previously required a massive incision and splitting the sternum to gain access to the heart.
In a similar way, gynecologists have begun to explore alternatives to the traditional open abdominal approach for the many indications requiring reconstruction of some aspect of the pelvic floor, such indications including genuine stress incontinence, vaginal prolapse, cystocele, rectocele, and enterocele.
There have been described in the literature many transvaginal approaches to the treatment of urinary stress incontinence. This includes procedures described by Pereyra, Raz, and Stamey. Pereyra originally described his approach in 1959, with modifications to improve results and reduce complications-described in 1967, 1978, and 1982. Raz disclosed his approach in 1981, and Stamey in 1973. These procedures were developed with the goal of combining the good results of a suprapubic colposuspension (for example, the above-described Burch procedure) with a vaginal repair that leaves the abdominal wall intact.
These procedures have some common elements; they all place sutures in the vaginal wall at the urethral-vesical junction (the bladder neck), and use some form of attachment to the abdominal wall for the suspension. This attachment is somewhat problematic in that the abdominal wall moves when the patient tenses or relaxes the stomach muscles. This in turn moves the bladder neck, and sometimes results in loss of urine (hence continued incontinence), or results in the opposite problem, an inability to void due to the bladder neck being kinked. The reason for the attachment to the movable abdominal wall instead of to the fixed Cooper""s ligament is that the Cooper""s ligament is all but impossible to reach with current instrumentation via a transvaginal approach.
It should be noted that although these procedures are easier to perform than the suprapubic approaches, and result in less post operative recovery time for the patient, the long-term continence rates have 15-30% below those for the suprapubic approaches. Thus it is clear that if one could attach the sutures to the fixed Cooper""s ligament via a transvaginal approach, the best aspects of both procedures may be realized; the short recovery times of the transvaginal approach and the good long term continence results of the suprapubic approach.
As it will be obvious to those skilled in the art, the use of the techniques described above for the performance of the Burch bladder suspension procedure may be used for other suturing tasks, such as for ligating vessels and ligaments during the performance of, for example, a hysterectomy or oophorectomy, or for the approximation of tissue flaps such as in the performance of procedures, for example, for the treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disorder.
Currently, a number of manufacturers of suture materials and needles exist. There are USP (United States Pharmacopeia) standards for the suture material diameters and tensile strengths, however no similar standards exist for the suture needles. There are however, conventional xe2x80x9cstandardxe2x80x9d needle sizes that many manufacturers fabricate. The needles are generally specified by the needle wire diameter, needle length and the bend arc length. A common needle size for most suture manufacturers, for example, is 26 mm long by xc2xd arc (180xc2x0). As it may be seen by geometric construction, a 26 mmxc3x97180xc2x0 needle describes a fixed bend radius, and this nominal bend radius is fairly consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer. Typically, the suture material is crimped in either a U shaped channel formed in the distal portion of the needle, or in a drilled hole. The crimp zone size and configuration varies between manufacturers, and generally tends to straighten out the bend radius in that localized area. Between the manufacturing tolerances in the bend radius and the straightening of the end of the needle in the crimp zone, the repeatability of the shape of the needle and suture combination may vary significantly. It is therefore desirable to construct an needle guide channel which will both guide the needle precisely, and allow for the aforementioned manufacturing tolerances and perturbations. This would allow readily available commercial suture and needle combinations to be used with the suture placement system.
None of the prior art devices are adaptable to effect the placement of a suture in the anterior abdominal wall, nor are they adaptable to place sutures precisely and controllably while making provision for needle retrieval when using endoscopic techniques. None of the prior art devices make it possible to place sutures into Cooper""s ligament via a transvaginal approach. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a family of novel suturing devices that overcomes the above set out disadvantages of prior known devices in a simple and economical manner.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a suture device that will permit the approximation of the separated edges of a puncture wound without making a larger incision to expose the wound margins.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a suture device that will permit the surgeon to apply substantial force to the needle, permitting it to be driven through tough tissues, for example, a ligament or the abdominal fascia.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a suture device that can be used in conjunction with modern day endoscopic surgical techniques.
Another object of the invention is to provide a suture device that will allow a needle to be driven in an arc which describes a plane parallel to the axis of the device.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a suture device that may be used to approximate the edges of an internal wound. Another object of the present invention is to provide a suture device that permits the penetration of two needles having suture material extending there between into and through the sides of a wound and into catches thereby creating a suture loop through the wound that may be tied to approximate the tissues.
Another object of the invention is to provide a suture device that will permit the surgeon to place sutures around vessels, ligaments, and other structures to effect ligation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a suture device that will permit the surgeon to place sutures in the Cooper""s ligament by palpation via a transvaginal approach.
The present invention is a new medical device that allows the surgeon to quickly and easily place a suture in the interior wall of a body cavity to approximate the tissues separated as a result of a puncture wound made by the introduction of a surgical trocar into a body cavity during endoscopic surgery. The invention described herein may also be used to approximate the margins of an open wound in an internal organ, such as the uterus or the stomach, such as would be effected during the course of a resection for benign or malignant lesions, and may also be used for placing sutures into Cooper""s ligament or other structures via a transvaginal approach. The transvaginal approach to the classic open Burch (the open Burch being acknowledged as the gold standard treatment for genuine urinary stress incontinence) is a new and novel procedure that has become possible due to the specific design aspects of the present invention.
One embodiment of the present invention includes needle holders that releasably hold a pair of needles that are in turn attached to each end of a single piece of suture material. Such needle holders are held within tubular guiding tracks housed within a hollow outer sleeve that may be introduced into a puncture wound. The needle holders and guiding tracks may be deployed outside the hollow sleeve to allow the needles to engage the tissue to be approximated. A plunger is coupled to rigid driving members that are in turn attached to flexible driving members adapted to follow the shape of the guiding tracks. The flexible driving members are suitably attached to the needle holders. The plunger is pushed, simultaneously driving the needle pair into opposite sides of the puncture wound and into catches also disposed within the hollow sleeve. The needle holders are retracted into the guiding tracks, and the tracks pulled back into the hollow sleeve trailing the suture material. The device may then be withdrawn, leaving a loop of suture material precisely placed in the selected tissue, for example, in the interior wall of the body cavity. The needles are removed from the ends of the suture, and the suture material is tied to complete the approximation of the tissue.
In one aspect, the present invention differs from the prior art in that it allows a suture to be placed in a retrograde fashion in the puncture wounds created during the introduction of trocars used for endoscopic surgery. These puncture wounds have margins perpendicular to the plane of tissue dissection, unlike the wounds that are addressed by prior art in which the tissues generally overlap. Presently, all the existing instruments are designed to either approximate tissues to which direct visual and physical access may be gained during open surgery, or to approximate tissues that may be pinched between the jaws of a forceps like instrument. Wounds in body organs such as the uterus or the stomach which are created during the resection or removal of benign or malignant lesions may also have wound margins which require end to end approximation instead of overlapping. The present invention allows the surgeon to independently pass a needle through each side of the wound to allow the two sides to be drawn together, approximating the tissue.
The needle driver apparatus of the present invention may be constructed in a number of different ways. Several of the preferred ways are described herein. One embodiment uses needle guides which are semicircular in shape, holding either a semicircular needle, or a semicircular needle holder with a small needle tip. These guides are disposed across their diameter within a hollow tubular sleeve when in the retracted mode, and are rotated about one end to deploy them outside the bounds of the hollow sleeve for engaging the tissue to be sutured. The needles, or the needle holders, are driven through the tissue by axial movement of a rigid cylindrical member which contacts a flexible cylindrical member that follows the semicircular shape of the guide tracks. The needles are caught in catches placed within the hollow tubular sleeve that capture the needle by means of a leaf spring disposed to flex, preferably in one direction, and squeezing into grooves or recesses in the needles, thereby retaining the needles to the hollow tubular sleeve. The needle guides may be retracted, and the instrument removed from the wound, thus trailing the suture material. The needles are removed, the suture is tied, and the approximation is completed.
Another version of the device uses semicircular needle holders similar to the previous version, but the needle guides are eliminated. The needle holders are instead rotated about their axes such that the needles attached to the ends of the holders describe an arc that encompasses the tissue to be sutured.
It is contemplated that the above embodiments may be modified to include needle paths other than circular, such as helical, elliptical or straight, by modification of the needles, the needle holders and the needle guides. It is also possible to adapt the above configurations to allow each of the needles to be actuated and driven independently by dividing the deployment controls and the needle drivers into separate left and right hand members. Further, it is possible to utilize a tool that uses only a single needle and guides it through both sides of the wound as opposed to the double needle configuration described above.
Accordingly, another embodiment of the device uses a single needle which eliminates the deployment aspect of the needle guides. The needle guide track is incorporated directly into the cannular body which is particularly adapted for use in endoscopic procedures. The cannular body is of a diameter such that it may be placed through, for example, a standard 10 mm-12 mm trocar. The needle may be a long shouldered needle such as described previously, or may be a standard xc2xd circle, or 180xc2x0 needle, with a length of, for example, 22 to 28 mm and crimped onto a length of standard suture material. As previously discussed, those skilled in the art will understand that various needle wire diameters, needle bend radii, needle cross sections, and suture materials are all adaptable to be used in the devices described herein. The needle may be loaded into the preformed needle guide track in the cannular body. It should be -noted that the needle is placed in the cannular body across its diameter such that the point of the needle lies substantially perpendicular to the axis of the cannular body. As in previous embodiments, axial movement of a flexible drive member drives the needle out of the guiding track into and through tissue placed adjacent to the exit opening in the cannular member.
After having driven the needle into tissue, if the needle is a shouldered needle, it may be retrieved by using a keyhole shaped slot incorporated into the side of the cannular body. If the needle is a standard, non-shouldered needle, standard laparoscopic graspers, which have been introduced into the operative site via a secondary trocar, may be used to pull the needle up a short distance trailing the suture. The needle driver may then be used to retrieve the needle and suture combination by either pinching the suture material in a groove fashioned for that objective, or clamping the needle with a means adapted for that purpose. The needle trailing the suture may then be withdrawn-through the surgical trocar.
This basic method of driving and retrieving the needle may be used in a number of ways at the surgeon""s discretion to effect approximation, ligation, or fixation of tissue. Approximation involves the placement of one to multiple sutures in order to pull the edges of a wound together to effect healing. Ligation involves placing a suture circumferentially about a vessel or duct in order to tie it off. In the case of ligation, only a single suture is placed, and a knot tied to strangulate the encompassed structure. Fixation involves the placement of sutures to positionally secure tissues in a particular orientation, and may require that multiple sutures be placed. Fixation may also require that each end of the suture be driven through the tissue more than once.
As it may be apparent, provisions for needle retrieval, the capability of the needle to be reloaded into the needle guide track, and the positioning and orientation of the needle are often desirable features, making it possible to efficiently and effectively place sutures for various therapeutic reasons. The invention herein described solves these problems.
The above described embodiments may be modified to include a needle carrier adapted as described before to hold a short barbed needle. This carrier may be disposed within the preformed needle guide track in the cannular body. A similar catch mechanism as described previously is incorporated into the side of the cannular body at the end of the arcuate path described by the short needle/needle carrier combination when axial movement of the flexible drive member drives the needle and carrier combination out of the guide and through the tissue to be sutured. Use of this embodiment for closure of trocar puncture wounds can be accomplished by loading one end of a suture prepared with short needles at both ends into the needle carrier. The instrument is inserted into the puncture wound by means of the trocar placed therein. The instrument is located such that the tip of the needle is placed directly against the inside of the abdominal wall.
The needle is driven up into the abdominal fascia by the flexible needle driver coupled to the needle driver button, and into the catch. The short needle stays in the catch, the needle carrier is withdrawn back into the needle guide track, and the entire device is withdrawn from the surgical trocar. The needle is removed from the catch, the opposite end of the suture with its attached short needle is loaded into the instrument, and the entire process is repeated with the second end of the suture being driven into the tissue on the opposite side of the puncture wound, 180xc2x0 from the initial stitch. The instrument and trocar are removed from the wound, and the remaining loop of suture is tied to approximate the tissues, thus closing the wound.
As it may be appreciated, this embodiment may be used in order to effect suturing in many different parts of the body, and is not limited to the closure of the wounds caused by the insertion of operative trocars into a body cavity. With the availability of both absorbable and non-absorbable suture material attached to the short needles, it is contemplated that the above described embodiment may be used in performance of procedures such as, for example, the laparoscopic Burch previously described. It is also contemplated that ligation of vessels and ligaments, such as, for instance, the ligation of uterine vessels and ligaments during the performance of a hysterectomy may be accomplished with this embodiment. This embodiment may also find application in the repair of the meniscal tissue in the knee or shoulder. It is to be clearly understood that this embodiment eliminates the manual step of needle retrieval from the wound, as the needle is automatically captured by the instrument itself.
Another embodiment of the device, which may be seen to incorporate many of the above-described features, is particularly adapted for the placement of sutures into the Cooper""s ligament via a transvaginal approach. These features include the design and functional aspects of the needle carrier, the short barbed or shouldered needle carrying the suture and the needle catch. This embodiment includes additional adaptations of the elongate body and an additional degree of freedom for articulation of the head of the device.
Due to the anatomical placement of the Cooper""s ligament bilaterally on the inferior aspect of the pubic ramus, it is necessary for this embodiment of the device to have a curved elongate body to allow for placement of the device head against the superior aspect of the ramus through an incision in the vaginal wall (a colpotomy). This device also has allowance for the head of the instrument, with the needle carrier and catch, to be rotated axially left or right to an angle of, for example, 45xc2x0 to accommodate the pubic arch.
The head of the device also incorporates a unique design for controlling the depth of penetration of the needle and needle carrier combination in order to place the suture material consistently into the ligament without penetrating the pubic bone. This is important because the Cooper""s ligament lies directly on the pubic bone, and penetration of the bone by the needle during the placement of the suture may cause osteitis pubis (bone infection).
The method of use of this device is as follows: an incision is made bilaterally in the anterior vaginal wall, just lateral to the bladder neck. The space of Retzius is dissected by sweeping the surgeon""s finger along the inferior aspect of the pubic ramus, from the symphysis pubis out as far laterally as can be reached, preferably as far as the obturator fossa. The Cooper""s ligament may be palpated, and using the symphysis as the medial landmark, and the obturator fossa as the lateral landmark, the instrument is guided by palpation up onto the superior aspect of the pubic ramus. A notch in the face of the head of the device is provided to allow the instrument to be accurately placed for delivery of the suture through Cooper""s ligament.
After proper positioning of the instrument is verified, the needle driver button is pushed, driving the needle carrier and needle suture combination through the ligament and into the needle catch. The shouldered needle is captured in the needle catch, and the needle carrier is retracted back into the device head. The entire device is withdrawn through the colpotomy, trailing the suture. A second pass through the ligament is optional. The free ends of the suture are then passed through the vaginal mucosa, and tied with a pulley stitch to allow for proper positioning of the bladder neck. The procedure is repeated on the contralateral side, both pulley stitches tied to the appropriate tension to effect the bladder neck suspension, and the colpotomy closed with absorbable suture.
It may be seen that for an instrument to automatically capture a needle in a consistent and repeatable fashion, it is important that the needle be guided into the catching mechanism in a predictable way. This will allow the catch to function properly, and reduces the possibility that the needle would not be engaged in the catch after being driven through tissue. It is also important that the needle drive mechanism operates with as little friction as possible, in order to allow the surgeon to have some tactile sense of the tissue being sutured.
It may also be appreciated that the limitations of the angles of access and the restrictions on the lateral manipulation of instruments used during endoscopic procedures imposed by the operative trocars can make reaching certain anatomical structures difficult. Thus, the ability to articulate an instrument within the body cavity independent of the manipulation of the main body shaft can be of particular advantage in accessing these difficult to reach structures. By articulating the head of the needle driver instrument, the exit angle of the needle may be adjusted, as well as opening the possibility of accessing certain areas of the body which are inaccessible in a linear fashion due to the aforementioned mechanical constraints.
In a first aspect, the present invention is a suturing instrument comprising: an elongate body member having a longitudinal axis; a suture deployment system located within a distal end portion of the elongate body member wherein the distal end portion includes a suture exit port, the suture deployment system comprising: a curved suture carrier channel; and a curved suture carrier movably positioned in the curved suture carrier channel; and a deployment controller having a proximal end, a distal end, a retracted position and a deployed position, the deployment controller extending substantially along the longitudinal axis of the elongate body member to the distal end of the elongate body member where it is coupled to the curved suture carrier and moves the curved suture carrier through the curved suture carrier channel as it moves between the retracted position and the deployed position, the curved suture carrier channel configured within the distal end portion of the elongate body member such that the curved suture carrier exits the suture exit port and is guided along a path which includes a proximal curved path segment such that a surface of the curved suture carrier is substantially adjacent with an outer surface of the distal end portion of the elongate body member along the proximal curved path segment. The suturing instrument may further include a suture catch positioned proximate to the distal end portion of the elongate body member such that a distal path segment of the curved suture carrier path is intercepted by the suture catch as the deployment controller approaches the deployed position. The suturing instrument further include a surgical needle positioned in a distal end of the curved suture carrier. In some devices, the surgical needle further comprises a bullet needle. In other aspects, the curved suture carrier channel and the curved suture carrier are located in a distal tip assembly of the elongate body member; and the distal tip assembly is joined with the elongate body member such that the distal tip assembly is free to rotate axially about the elongate body member longitudinal axis. Another aspect of the device has the deployment controller coupled to the curved suture carrier with a flexible driver member. This flexible driver member may further comprise an alloy of nickel and titanium.
In a second aspect, the present invention is a suturing instrument comprising: a body member; a suture exit port formed in the body member; a curved suture carrier channel formed in the body member; and a curved suture carrier movably positioned in the curved suture carrier channel, wherein the curved suture carrier has a retracted position such that the curved suture carrier is positioned within an interior region of the body member and a deployed position such that a portion of the curved suture carrier is positioned exterior to the body member, the curved suture carrier configured within the curved suture carrier channel such that the curved suture carrier exits the interior region of the body member through the suture exit port and is guided along a path which includes a proximal curved path segment wherein a surface of the curved suture carrier is substantially adjacent with an outer surface of the body member along the proximal curved path segment. This device may further include a suture catch positioned on the body member such that a distal path segment of the curved suture carrier path is intercepted by the suture catch. This instrument may also include a surgical needle positioned in a distal end of the curved suture carrier. The surgical needle may further comprise a bullet needle.
In a third aspect, the present invention is a suturing instrument comprising: an elongate body member having a longitudinal axis; a distal tip suture deployment assembly joined with a distal end of the elongate body member such that the distal tip assembly is free to rotate axially about the elongate body member longitudinal axis, the distal tip suture deployment assembly comprising: a distal tip body member; a suture exit port formed in the distal tip body member; a curved suture carrier channel formed in the distal tip body member; and a curved suture carrier movably positioned in the curved suture carrier channel; and a deployment controller having a proximal end, a distal end, a retracted position and a deployed position, the deployment controller extending substantially along the longitudinal axis of the elongate body member to the distal end of the elongate body member where it is coupled to the distal tip suture deployment assembly and moves the curved suture carrier through the curved suture carrier channel as it moves between the retracted position and the deployed position. In this device, the distal tip suture deployment assembly may be configured to have a retracted position such that the curved suture carrier is positioned within an interior region of the distal tip body member and a deployed position where a portion of the curved suture carrier is positioned exterior to the distal tip body member, the curved suture carrier configured within the curved suture carrier channel such that the curved suture carrier exits the interior region of the distal tip body member through the suture exit port and is guided along a path which includes a proximal curved path segment wherein a surface of the curved suture carrier is substantially adjacent with an outer surface of the distal tip body member along the proximal curved path segment. This device may further comprise a suture catch positioned on the distal tip body member such that a distal path segment of the curved suture carrier path is intercepted by the suture catch as the deployment controller approaches the deployed position. The instrument may further comprise a surgical needle positioned in the distal end of the curved suture carrier. In some aspects, the surgical needle may be bullet needle.
In a fourth aspect, the present invention is a method for placing a suture in thin tissue adjacent bone structure comprising: placing a suturing instrument which encloses a curved suture carrier which is movably positioned within a curved suture carrier channel adjacent the tissue to be sutured; and deploying the curved suture carrier out of the suturing instrument through an exit port such that the curved suture carrier exits an interior region of the suturing instrument through the exit port along a path which approaches being substantially tangential to an outer surface of the suturing instrument surrounding the exit port.
In a fifth aspect, the present invention is a suturing instrument comprising: a body member; an exit port formed in the body member; a curved suture carrier channel formed in the body member; and a curved suture carrier movably positioned in the curved suture carrier channel, wherein the curved suture carrier has a retracted position such that the curved suture carrier is positioned within an interior region of the body member and a deployed position such that a portion of the curved suture carrier is positioned exterior to the body member, the curved suture carrier configured within the curved suture carrier channel such that the curved suture carrier exits the interior region of the body member through the exit port along a path which approaches being substantially tangential to an outer surface of the body member surrounding the exit port.
In a sixth aspect, the present invention is a suturing instrument comprising: an elongate body member having a alongitudinal axis; a suture deployment system located within a distal end portion of the elongate body member wherein the distal end portion includes a suture exit port, the suture deployment system comprising: a curved suture carrier channel; and a curved suture carrier movably positioned in the curved suture carrier channel; and a deployment controller having a proximal end, a distal end, a retracted position and a deployed position, the deployment controller extending substantially along the longitudinal axis of the elongate body member to the distal end of the elongate body member where it is coupled to the curved suture carrier and moves the curved suture carrier through the curved suture carrier channel as it moves between the retracted position and the deployed position, the curved suture carrier channel configured within the distal end portion of the elongate body member such that the curved suture carrier exits the suture exit port along a path which approaches being substantially tangential to an outer surface of the body member surrounding the suture exit port. This aspect of the invention may further comprise a suture catch positioned proximate to the distal end portion of the elongate body member such that a distal path segment of the curved suture carrier path is intercepted by the suture catch as the deployment controller approaching the deployed position. A surgical needle may be positioned in a distal end of the curved suture carrier. The surgical needle may further comprise a bullet needle. Additionally, the curved suture carrier channel and the curved suture carrier may be located in a distal tip assembly of the elongate body member; and the distal tip assembly is joined with the elongate body member such that the distal tip assembly is free to rotate axially about the elongate body member longitudinal axis. The deployment controller may be coupled to the curved suture carrier with a flexible driver member. The flexible driver member may further comprise an alloy of nickel and titanium.
These and other characteristics of the present invention will become apparent through reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and accompanying drawings.